First Post

My name is Adam Price and I have Leukemia.

This is the part where everyone says "Hi Adam" in unison. Sorry, bad joke,
but this online journal is a kind of therapy so I figure it applies here. A
word of warning to those who don't know me. My main coping mechanisms are
bad humor and complete and utter denial so don't expect anything worthy of
the Pulitzer price in this.

I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in late April of 2003. It's a
pretty scary sounding cancer but to be perfectly honest, up until recently
it hasn't impacted me very much. I've been to the doctor more times
than I can remember, and I've cost the Alberta Health Care system almost
50,000 dollars in drugs, but other than it's been business a usual.

My last bone marrow biopsy confirmed that the drug therapy I was on was not
completely effective in fighting the cancer and I made the choice to have a
bone marrow transplant. For those of you who don't know me very well I'd
like to point out that in the last month Caity and I have just moved into
our first new home and my lovely wife Caity also gave birth to two of the
most beautiful girls I have ever seen. I'd like to share some words of
advice before we get into the meat of things here.

Don't move into a new house, have twins and schedule a bone marrow
transplant all in the same month unless you really, truly enjoy being
overwhelmed by stress.

That being said, I think that because of everything I just mentioned above,
I'm better prepared for the stress of being sick. I've eaten so many Tums
in the last month that I was starting to consider it a food group. The
funny thing is that now that the twins are born and we're moved in, I feel
much better than I thought I would seeing as I'll be going through hell and
back in just under a week. I've heard from more than one source that a bone
marrow transplant is kind of like having the worst flu you've ever had for a
full year. Well, we'll find out how hard it is in a little while. In the
meantime there's a lot of preparation that needs to be done before the
transplant can take place. I've still got to get my central line put in,
and the week of chemo before I get any new bone marrow.

I'll go into more detail about the chemotherapy as it happens. As for the
central line, I need to discuss this one a little if you will indulge me.
The central line is an IV in your shoulder area that taps directly into the
inferior vena cava. Instead of poking me every time they need to take blood
or give me drugs the central line allows them to poke me at will without
damaging my veins. I'm not sure why but I'm more nervous about the central
line than anything else. Maybe it's the visual of these tubes sticking out
of my upper chest that I'm not crazy about. I really wish I could explain
the apprehension associated with the whole central line procedure but it
sure is the one thing that has got me stressed right now. The central line
goes in on Tuesday so check back on Wednesday to see how I did. I think I'm
going to get just a local for the procedure so I can give you all the gory
details first hand.

Well, it's 1:30 am and unless I want to sleep my last normal day in bed
sleeping, I should go to bed. Tomorrow I figure I'll cover how I was
diagnosed and all the various procedures and drugs I've had in the last year
and a half.

Goodnight Everyone.